Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace has signed a contract with the Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (FMA) to upgrade the radars on the NASAMS Air Defence System.
Norway has for several years deployed the air defense system NASAMS (Norwegian Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System), which consists of launch units with missiles, command and control stations, radars and electro-optical sensors. Now the radars, called “AN/MPQ-64”, are to be upgraded by replacing certain parts.
The contract for upgrading new NASAMS is worth NOK 365 million ($33.6 million). The first radar is being upgraded by the manufacturer Raytheon Missile and Defense, who will also supply the upgrade modules.
Kongsberg Aviation Maintenance Services will be responsible for the remaining upgrades of the radars. The project will be completed by the end of 2025.
“The purpose of the upgrade is to ensure that the NASAMS air defense system maintains its ability to detect, identify and combat air threats. The upgrade will give the NASAMS radars the same configuration and status as our partners and with the same functionality of new radars. This upgrade contributes to a further modernization of Norway’s air defence,” says Brigadier General Jarle Nergård, Head of the Air Systems Division at FMA.
“The planned upgrades continue the development of NASAMS and take advantage of advances developed in collaboration with other NASAMS user nations. The large and increasing number of NASAMS users contributes to the continuous development of the system,” says Kjetil Myhra, Executive Vice President Integrated Defence Systems at Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace.
About NASAMS Air Defence System
Developed by Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace (KDA) and Raytheon, NASAMS (National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System) is a mobile system with high operational flexibility for the protection of assets such as air bases, ports, armed forces or populated areas.
It is the world’s first operational Network Centric Short to Medium Range Ground Based Air Defence System.
The system defends against unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), helicopters, cruise missiles, unmanned combat aerial vehicles (UCAVs), and fixed wing aircraft, firing any of a wide range of existing missiles.
A standard NASAMS unit has a modular design comprising a command post the FDC, an active 3D radar Raytheon AN/MPQ-64F1 Sentinel, a passive electro-optical and infrared sensor and a number of missile canister launchers with AMRAAM missiles.
Normally, a number of NASAMS fire units are netted together in a uniquely designed ”hard-realtime” communication network to ensure minimum latency over large distances for maximum system performance utilizing the unique capabilities of the AMRAAM missile.
It is in use in 13 countries, including Norway, US and Ukraine.
Effective firing range:
Missile range: 30 km (NASAMS 2 / AMRAAM)
50 km (NASAMS 3 / AMRAAM-ER)
Radar track range: 120 km (NASAMS 2 / MPQ-64F1
Flight altitude: 21 km (NASAMS 2) 35.7 km (NASAMS 3 / AMRAAM-ER)
